Dorothy Palmieri has saved the dirty filters since her son, a plumber, installed a water-filtering system in her basement last year. Here are some of them, with a new white one in the foreground.
(Photo courtesy of Mary Ellen Probanski)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - EAST SHORE - Long-time Oakwood resident John LaFemina, a retired building contractor, is apparently not alone in his concern about the quality of the water entering his home from the city's water main. Following a June 27 Shores story about his installation of a filtering system in his Malone Avenue basement over 15 years ago, other Staten Islanders contacted the Advance, reporting similar concerns and initiatives.

"I've had the same problem," said Anthony Amabile, a resident of Otis Avenue in New Dorp since 1995. "I made numerous calls (to city agencies) and finally just gave up."

He installed a filtering system in his basement 17 years ago, and changes the filters every two weeks, from March until the end of May. "After that, I change them once a month," he said.

A former homeowner in Brooklyn, Amabile explained that he changed the filters in his house in that borough every six months. After moving to Staten Island, he found that the conditions required more frequent attention.

"I know it's time to change the filters when my wife tells me that the water pressure has dropped in the shower," he said on June 27. "We never drink the water – and, with the filter, our clothes come out definitely cleaner (from the washing machine)."

PLUMBER'S CONCERN

Michael Murphy, a plumber who lives on Slater Boulevard in Ocean Breeze, installed filters in his home, and the house of his father, Harold, a resident of Laconia Avenue for 41 years.

Murphy decided to take action after he noticed sediment in customers' hot-water heaters. "It builds up," he said. "And I think that the accumulated sediment insulates the flame, and increases energy costs. It's a waste of energy."

When dry, the sediment is "as fine as talcum powder, and brownish," he told the Advance.

"When we remove customers' old hot-water heaters, they weigh a ton, from the built-up sediment inside," he claimed. "This bothers me, because we're paying so much for water as taxpayers." Periodic flushing of the heaters is "no guarantee" that all the sediment is gone, he contended.

Murphy installed a sediment filter on the water main in his home, in addition to another filter "on the inlet of my hot-water tank," he told the Advance.

He changed the filters every three months, until about 15 homes were built across the street from his house four or five years ago. "Since then, I have to change the filters every month-and-a-half," he reported.

"We don't use the tap water," said Murphy. "We buy spring water."

Maria Shevchuk, who lives in a townhouse on Andrews Avenue in South Beach built in 2006, contacted the Advance with complaints about the "heavy smell of chlorine" in her tap water, and "brown sediment" in her bathroom, "especially if we leave the house for the weekend. "We never use tap water for drinking," she said.

PRINCE'S BAY HOME

"My mother – Dorothy Palmieri – has the same exact problem on Wieland Avenue in Prince's Bay," Willowbrook resident Mary Ellen Probanski said on June 28.

"Her water is so horrible that it clogs the screens in her faucets, especially in her bathroom. Long, black strings of gook come out of her bathtub faucet when the filter needs changing, which is every two to three weeks," she said.

Mrs. Probanski's brother, Glenn, a licensed plumber, installed a filtering system for his mother last August, she reported. "These filters are expensive, and my mom is elderly. She is also afraid that (the water) is affecting her health. She keeps having odd rashes on her body that come and go.

"She has kept all her used, dirty filters since my brother installed the system. She has a large pile of them, each one a very dark brown."

"I change her filter on the main line coming into her basement every three weeks," said Mrs. Probanski. "As soon as I turn the main water line back on, the filter immediately starts turning brown," she added. "Her faucets get clogged also. I also drain about five gallons of brown (mush) from her hot-water heater every three weeks after I put in a new filter. Something needs to be done. She has called the DEP (New York City's Department of Environmental Protection), and inspectors have come to her home. No one from DEP followed up on her problem."

The hot-water heater in the Prince's Bay home is also affected, according to Mrs. Probanski. "I have to flush out her hot-water heater also every three weeks. It usually takes 5 to 10 gallons to flush out the brown sediment every time. We don't even remove the garden hose from her hot water heater anymore because we have to do it so often," she said.

The Advance spoke to Mrs. Palmieri, 72, on July 5. "I have every filter since my son Glenn put in (the system)," she said. "They go in white, and start getting dark brown in a couple of days," she said.

Native Staten Islander Glenn Palmieri, a plumber since 1985, has worked as a union-licensed plumber in Illinois since 1994, he told the Advance on Monday. "I inspect sewer lines and repair water services in Joliette, from the city mains to property lines."

He said that the pipes in his mother's home are "not galvanized," but "about 90 percent brass and 10 percent copper." She had no problem with her water supply until "five or six years ago, when the city installed a sewer.

"I'm concerned about the sediment in her (incoming) water. We're trapping all of this (in the filters), but what is it?"

Mrs. Palmieri informed the Advance that she called 311 on July 5, "and I got a reference number. They told me to call DEP and complain, and also told me to call the Public Advocate (Bill de Blasio) if I don't hear anything in 14 days," she said. "Tonight (July 5), a DEP truck came to the front of my house, and said that they were going to flush out the fire hydrant."

REACH-OUT

John LaFemina, the Oakwood homeowner who has long filtered his incoming city water, notified the Advance on Monday that DEP workers flushed out the fire hydrant nearest his home, in front of 174 Malone Ave., on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning, and each time "dark brown mud" was deposited and visible on the street, he said.

DEP contacted LaFemina by phone on Monday morning, to arrange collection of a water sample from his basement, before the city water entered his filter. LaFemina said no. He explained to the Advance that he wanted to install brand-new filters in his basement system, and then call DEP for testing of the water once the filters started to turn the characteristic dark brown.